Jeff’s Past: Back to the Coast and Beyond

My junior year at Michigan State I decided a career in the foreign service didn’t suite me. (But, as you will find out, my political science background has served me well in the present.) I had always been interested in art, so I enrolled in some graphic design classes. I got serious, but I also found my muse. Near the end of my undergraduate days I decided to go on to graduate school in graphic design. I was eager to get back to California. So I applied to only one school, UCLA, and was accepted. This was a tangent that set me on the course I find myself on today.

Now, let’s get real. I say this as a former college prof who has seen lots of student work: my portfolio sucked. I would never admit a student to a graduate program who showed work like that. However, providence was on my side. That year, the UCLA Department of Design decided to try an experiment. They admitted graduate students from other disciplines. They were looking for people who had experiences outside of design but with an interest in the visual. I fit the profile. One of my fellow colleagues was an English high school teacher.